I’m participating in the #AtoZ April Blogging Challenge 2025 and this will be my third year of joining the vibrant community that loves this one-of-a-kind creative challenge.
This year, my theme is—BOOKS THAT CHANGED MY LIFE—which means they are not just my favourite books, but they’ve also left a deep and lasting impact on me and continue to do so until this day. If you are stopping by this blog for the first time, please do leave your blog link, I’ll be happy to visit yours too. 🙂
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind By Shunryo Suzuki
This book by Shunryo Suzuki—monk and one of the most influential spiritual teachers of Zen Buddhism as well as the founding father of Zen in America—is a timeless classic that offers a profound exploration of Zen Buddhism, meditation practice and the art of living mindfully.
Targeted primarily for beginners in the subject, the book is a collection of teachings and insights from Suzuki’s lectures, compiled by his student, Trudy Dixon. Through its pages, Suzuki shares the details of posture and breathing in zazen to the perception of nonduality—in a way that is not only clear but also resonates with the joy of insight from the start of the book until its end.
Shunryu shares his wisdom on the nature of the mind, the importance of mindfulness, and the path to enlightenment. His emphasis on the importance of approaching life with a “beginner’s mind,” was for me, a great starting point, as I learnt to let go of my preconceptions, before approaching this book and it’s teachings.
I found the book loaded with tons of practical advice and insights on how to cultivate mindfulness and awareness in our everyday lives.
Suzuki’s teachings are extremely simple yet profound, and i loved how he uses everyday examples to illustrate complex Zen concepts to the readers. He emphasizes the importance of being present in the moment, letting go of distractions, and embracing impermanence—all the concepts that I had earlier been introduced to, through the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and Pema Chödrön.
There are two very important things that Suzuki shares in order to help us approach life with greater awareness and curiosity—firstly, he teaches us to let go of the attachment to specific outcomes—this is a tough one for most of us, but I must say, it is possible to learn this, with practice and with time.
The other thing he talks about is the value of bringing our presence into a given moment and encouraging us to learn the ways of embracing uncertainty and impermanence of life.
This, to my mind, is one of the most essential life lessons that Zen Buddhism teaches us, as we progress through life.
If we are to gain true freedom and happiness, we can only do so by letting go of our ego, attachments, thoughts and desires. This insight turns out to be incredibly liberating, allowing us to approach life more mindfully, with greater ease and a deeper clarity.
This book is a great starting point for learning about Zen Buddhism from one of the best teachers on the subject. Suzuki’s wisdom is inspiring, practical and timeless.
It is one of the mamy books that enjoys pride of place on my shelf. It is one that I will keep coming back to, to dip into and be inspired from, over and over again!
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With this post, I feel an immense surge of gratitude for being able to finish the #atozchallenge2025, sharing books that left a big impact on my life and work. In fact, all of the books I’ve written about, proved to be life changing for me. There were countless barriers and challenges on the way but I did it! That’s all that matters. Will be catching up on the reading over the next couple of days, so please do bear with me!
Kudos to everyone who reached the finishing line today!! Take a bow!! You deserve nothing short of an applause for coming this far.
If you’d like to read the rest of my A to Z posts written for the #AtoZAprilChallenge2025, then please click here to read on.